Translating Atmospheres: On the Relation between Notation and Noticing

Abstract

This paper examines atmospheres of translation through the relation between notation and noticing in the context of a regenerative arts practice, from the position of a nomadic mother in bi-cultural Aotearoa, New Zealand. Conventionally, notation has been understood as a way of specifying something (it could be a performance, as in music or dance, or a structure, as in architecture or engineering), so that it can be more or less precisely reproduced. But this poses a problem when it comes to things, like atmospheres, which by their very nature cannot be pinned down. If instead, you were to think of notation as a way of corresponding with the thing (going along with it, and answering to it as you go), then notation and notated become equal partners in the conversation, as it were, and it is no longer possible to tell who is notating whom. This correspondence (with things) can be seen as (per)forming reciprocity, in, with and through (affordances of) becoming equal partners. This paper shares its cartography - its knowledge-map of becoming - through (i) perfomative autoethnography (ii) acts of noticing, in relation to plant care and growth (iii) notations of atmospheric agency, or morphic resonance. (These exist beyond scientific understanding(s) of the atmosphere eg political, indigenous, religious, philosophical and/or aesthetic) (iv) sculptural translation. Research is informed by James Gibson’s ecological approach to visual perception, Tristan Garcia’s notion of “thingly being”, Gernot Böhme’s understanding of the “in-between-ness of the atmosphere” and Anna Tsing’s “the art of noticing”.

Presenters

Lucy Boermans
PhD Candidate, Visual Arts, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

Details

Presentation Type

Innovation Showcase

Theme

2024 Special Focus—Traveling Concepts: The Transfer and Translation of Ideas in the Humanities

KEYWORDS

ATMOSPHERE,RELATION,NOTATION,NOTICING,REGENERATIVE,PERFORMATIVE,AUTOETHNOGRAPHY,ART,RESONANCE